Attention to Property Right
The Korea Intellectual Property Office announced on February 26 that South Korea came in first out of 45 countries in the trademark category of the 2016 International IP Index recently released by the Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) of the United States Chamber of Commerce.
The evaluation of the 45 countries was carried out based on laws and guidelines, academic data, judicial precedents, research reports, etc. The index provides data and information on how the countries protected intellectual property rights, what improvements they made and so on.
South Korea scored a total of 6.55 to remain at the top for the third consecutive year. In seven evaluation items, each with a perfect score of one, South Korea obtained one in period of protection of trademark rights, limitation of branding on product packages, protection of well-known marks, restriction on online sale of counterfeit products and period of protection of design rights, obtained 0.75 in legal means for preventing unauthorized use of trademarks and 0.8 in legal means for preventing unauthorized use of design.
In the same index, South Korea shared its top spot with the United States and Britain in 2014. Last year, the United States and South Korea shared the foremost place.